The White House said on April 21 that it has not been looking for a replacement for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
NPR reported earlier on Monday, citing a single anonymous source described as a U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly, that the White House had started looking for a new secretary of defense.
It came after a different report, by The New York Times, said that Hegseth in mid-March shared details of a forthcoming attack in the Middle East to a chat group that included his wife and brother.
Hegseth was already known to have posted about the attack before it happened to a Signal group involving Cabinet officials such as CIA Director John Ratcliffe, a matter that is under investigation.
“What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax,” he said, referring to the promotion by some outlets of the belief that President Donald Trump’s first campaign was closely linked with Russian actors.
A Department of Defense spokesperson did not deny that Hegseth was talking about the attack in Yemen with a second Signal group, but said he did not share classified information in any Signal chats.
Some Democrats said this week that Hegseth should be replaced.
Trump told reporters at the White House that Hegseth “is doing a great job.”
“It’s just fake news. They just bring up stories. I guess it sounds like disgruntled employees. He was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that’s what he’s doing, so you don’t always have friends when you do that,” Trump said.
Earlier on Monday, Leavitt told reporters: “The president absolutely has confidence in Secretary Hegseth. I spoke to him about it this morning, and he stands strongly behind him.”
Hegseth and Trump did not identify any of the individuals to whom they referred, but the Pentagon has confirmed that three officials—Dan Caldwell, an aide to Hegseth; Darin Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff; and Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg—were recently placed on leave as part of a probe into unauthorized disclosures.
The officials in a joint statement on Friday appeared to indicate that they were no longer with the administration, as they decried what they described as “baseless attacks.”
Hegseth is Trump’s first secretary of defense. A military veteran and former Fox News host, he received confirmation from the Senate in January when Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote.
